After his trip down memory lane, Krios decided to call it a day and head back to the dorm. There he found his friend preparing his things for their upcoming trip.
"Where have you been?" Loras asked him.
"Just outside, sightseeing." He answered jokingly.
"Wow, aren't you anxious? Excited? Everyone's been on a rampage trying to prepare, and you were out there just sightseeing?" Loras said while laughing.
"I'm excited obviously. I'm also anxious. There are a lot of uncertainties in that realm. Ine being the fact that there would be students from other academies in the kingdom with us there."
"All of them are minor academies to say the least. So there would only be about a handful people who can come close to the students from our academy, especially those from calss one."
"We don't know about that. That might be true, but, let's just be careful once we're inside." Krios said.
"That goes without saying. But I also want us to enjoy and get the best out of the experience." Loras answered.
"I agree with you on that. Let's do our best to get treasures and get stronger. I wonder what we could find there. Just thinking of the possibilities make me feel extra excited."
The following day, all two thousand first year students were given the day off to do whatever they needed to do in preparation for the Moon realm opening the next day.
Most of them decided to do last minute training sessions while others decided to get some much needed rest.
Krios and Loras on the other hand went out of the academy to do some last minute shopping. They decided to go to the shopping district of the city center to find things they need for their upcoming journey.
How much would a storage ring with about four big carriage worth of space?" Krios asked the seller.
"That would be seventy thousand gold coins." The seller responded.
'So expensive!' Krios thought.
But it was understandable as storage rings were generally pricey due to their importance. They were also hard to create which added to its proce value.
"I'll be taking one." Krios answered.
He waved his hand and seventy thousand gold coins appeared on the seller's desk.
The seller gave him the ring and he and Loras went out of the shop. Loras also bought one for himself, anticipating that he and Krios might get a lot of treasures, thus the need for larger capacity storage rings.
"What more do we need?" Krios asked Loras.
"We need healing pills in case of emergency. Also some mana pills to replenish our mana when needed. And antidotes for poisons." He answered.
"Okay. Let's go find them."
They went to the alchemist guild to look for the pills they needed.
"What kind of healing pills, antidotes, and mana pills are you looking for?" An attendant asked them.
"Just give us a bottle each of the best healing pills, antidotes, and mana pills for our level of cultivation. And also the same set for pills in the Reconvergence realm. Ah before I forget, give me one cultivation pill, one that can help me break through to the next realm." Krios replied.
"Okay, wait for me for a minute while I get your orders." The attendant then went on to do as she said.
"Why do you need pills for the Reconvergence realm?" Loras asked him.
"I will try to break through to the early Reconvergence realm tonight." He answered.
"Really? Are you feeling ready about it?"
"Yeah. I just need a little nudge. Which is why I also ordered a cultivation pill."
"That's a good news! You'll have better chances at caiming one of the top spots!" Loras answered him excitedly.
"How about you? Are you not going to try and break through to the late Mana Compression realm?"
"Hmm, fine, I'll also try to level up tonight. But no pressure."
"That's good. Because the stronger the both of us get, the easier it would be for us to defend not just ourselves, but also each other." Krios told his friend.
"And it would also give us better chances at completing whatever challeges we might encounter inside the moon realm."
"Hi, thank you for your patience." The attendant said as she placed small bottles on the desk.
"These three right here are the healing pills, antidotes, and mana pills for Mana Compression realm. And these three bottles contain the same pills, but for the Reconvergence realm."
She then gave Krios a separate bottle containing three pills inside.
"And that one contains pearl seagrass cultivation pill. It's a good cultivation pill to help you ascend to the Reconvergence realm."
"Thank you. How much for everything?"
"The pills for Mana Compression realm costs a total of twenty thousand gold coins. Their Reconvergence realm counterparts total fifty thousand gold coins. And the three pearl seagrass cultivation pills cost fifteen thousand gold coins for a total of eighty five thousand gold coins."
'Everything in this place is so expensive! Thankfully, we got money from the golden mana fruit we sold a while back.'
Krios waved his hand and the same amount of money appeared on the attendants desk. She inspected them first before taking to her own storage ring.
After shopping some more, the two of them finally decided to go back to the academy.
"Hey Loras, you take the meditation chamber and try to break through. I'll use the training room instead so we can do it simultaneously."
"Okay, good luck!"
They parted ways and Krios made a beeline towards building seven where his personal training room was.
When he arrived, Krios looked for a comfotable spot and sat on a meditative position with the bottle of pearl seagrass pills on his hand.
"Let's see if you're worth your price."
He opened the bottle and plopped one pill on his mouth. Once the pill hit his stomach, a thick white energy started to circulate around his mana veins.
"Now on to the first meridian."
During birth, only three out of the nine meridians necessary for cultivation open in a persons body—one on each wrist, and one on the chest. And the objective of Reconvergence is to open the remaining six meridians.
To enter the early Reconvergence realm, one must open one of the six remaining closed meridians. To ascend to the mid Reconvergence realm, one must open two more, then one needs to open the remaining three to ascend to the late Reconvergence realm.
Krios used the thick white energy from the pill to push the blockage out of the meridian right below the navel.
"Huk." Krios sucked in a breath as an intense throbbing pain bombarded his lower abdomen where the meridian was.
The more he push out parts of the blockage, the more pain he felt. But he kept on pushing through, determined to break through before their departure the following day.
After an hour, the white energy finally ran dry. Krios breathed a sigh of relief as he inspected the meridian he was working on. After close inspection, he saw that fifty percent of the blockage were now gone.
"Let's go for round two." He said as he plopped a second pearl seagrass pill into his mouth.
The familiar thick energy flowed once again and he repeated the process. This time, the pain was no longer a bother as his body was starting to get used to it.
"I little more. Come on Krios." He urged himself.
Two hours passed and the last remaining part of the blockage came of.
*Boom*
A familiar boom resounded from his mana core as he successfully ascended to the mid Reconvergence realm.
The newly opened meridian sucked in mana from his mana core hungrily, like a parched land finally receiving its first rainfall. His mana core would have been sucked dry of mana if not for his mana equivalence rotation method balancing the inward and outward flow of mana on his core.
Krios breathed in a sigh of relief as he felt his strength rise incredibly.
"I'm now atleast twice as strong as my self before breaking through"
After some time, his newly opened meridian finally seized activities, finally calming down. Krios stood up, shaking the aches away from his bones and muscles. His spear appeared in his hand and his aura shot up like a blazing purple inferno.
"Fantastic!" Krios exclaimed, feeling the effects of having one more meridian to use.
His one newly opened meridian has increased his mana output by a lot, making his strength rise drastically.
"And it's just one out of the six that I have yet to open." He said excitedly.
He imbued his spear with his chaos mana and the weapon core glowed brightly. A purple fireball appeared at the tip of the spear, blazing even brighter.
"Even my base fireball is almost twice as big now."
He pointed his spear towards the wall and the fireball shot out forward like a purple commet.
When the fireball hit the wall, a massive explosion rocked his training room, with the defensive formations flickering on and off. The room shook for a few seconds while a strong gust of wind blasted in every direction.
"Moon Realm, I am definitely ready for you!"